OpenAI is allowing anyone to create their own ChatGPT chatbots – here’s what that means for you

Open AI have announced new tools that lets anyone create a customized chatbot or AI agent. The catch? There isn’t one. You don’t even need coding skills to get started.

OpenAI announced at its first ever developer conference, that it will let paying users create and sell their own ChatGPTs for specific use cases. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced that in the upcoming weeks, GPTs will be accessible through the GPT store. By launching this digital store where people can purchase chatbots, OpenAI are following a similar trajectory of tech giants like Google and Apple with the Google Play Store and the App Store.

What are custom OpenAI GPTs?

Custom OpenAI GPTs are essentially GPTs that are combined with a user’s own extra knowledge, custom preferences, and instructions. Your own custom version of ChatGPT will offer the same abilities as the OpenAI pioneering models GPT-4V or GPT-4 Turbo. In July 2023, OpenAI released ‘Custom Instructions’ which, essentially allowed ChatGPT to remember certain preferences and information when generating responses. Sure, it worked and for users who need access to ChatGPT on the fly, it was a great feature. However, Custom GPTs will allow for even more control and customization than ever before.

Each GPT can be allowed access to web browsing, DALL-E, and OpenAI’s Code Interpreter tool. Another feature that can be accessed is the “Knowledge” section in the builder interface for uploading custom data. The custom GPTs will also be able to connect with external services for accessing data such as emails, databases, and more. It can even hook into Canva or Zapier.

Here’s something that should brighten your day. With this new tool, you will be able to create an AI chatbot more powerful than Elon Musk’s! Musk announced the release of his new chatbot, Grok which outperforms GPT-3.5 but not GPT-4. As a result of the Custom GPT feature being used on the GPT-4 model, the xAI chatbot already falls behind in performance.

How to get custom OpenAI GPTs

OpenAI’s new feature will be exclusively to ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Enterprise subscribers. AKA the paid version of ChatGPT. Access to the tool starts as early as this week, with the GPT Store coming later in November. The GPT Store will be the home of the Custom GPTS and will feature creations of verified builders. The Store will supposedly be organised into productivity, education, work and “Just for fun”. Once the store is live, subscribers can create their own ChatGPT chatbots. In the meantime, 16 GPTs made by OpenAI are available to use.

In this initial period, GPTs will be accessible through shareable web links but once the GPT Store launches, OpenAI will only accept agents from people who’ve verified their identities. OpenAI have said they will be monitoring activity to block fraud, hate speech and NSFW content. However, the creators of GPTS can’t see the chats that users are having with them so this will be interesting to see how it plays out.

What can you do with custom ChatGPTs?

Essentially Custom ChatGPT’s allow users to have an AI chatbot for more specific tasks. Instead of a chatbot which generates responses to everything, users can now have access to specific chatbots that offer unique ideas and provide more specialized information. Let’s take a closer look at some of the 16 custom GPTs made by OpenAI, to get a more detailed breakdown of what you can do with them. Here are some favorites:

• Game Time: I can quickly explain board games or card games to players of any skill
• Sticker Whiz: I’ll help turn your wildest dreams into die-cut stickers, shipped to your door
• Creative Writing Coach: I’m excited to read your work and give you feedback to improve your skills
• Laundry Buddy: Ask me anything about stains, settings , sorting and everything laundry
• Tech Advisor: From setting up a printer to troubleshooting a device, I’m here to help you step-by-step
• The Negotiator: I’ll help you advocate for yourself and get better outcomes.

These are a few examples of the creative extent in what GPTs can offer. There are more tech related GPTs but the specificity of a GPT that helps create stickers, is not one to ignore. With these examples, it will hopefully give you more of an idea of what you can do with custom ChatGPTs. Whether you’re after a personal AI chef, or an AI chatbot to breakdown the latest memes, custom ChatGPTs can do it for you.

What are OpenAI GPTs?

GPTs refers to the architecture and training method that enables natural language understanding and generation. In terms of the specific details about the GPT Store, we haven’t got a lot just yet. However, OpenAI have promised that they will eventually pay creators an unspecified amount based on the usage of their GPTs.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has multiple models to choose from, each with different training and learning algorithms. Unsurprisingly, each one has improved down the line, meaning that now, at the time of writing, the most recent GPT-4 has the capacity to generate images, access real-time information, and a lot more. For more information on GPT-4, take a look at the breakdown of what GPT-4 is and what it can do.

So let’s break it down. GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformers and before you get any ideas, Optimus Prime has nothing to do with it. What’s interesting is, whilst OpenAI didn’t invent GPT, it appears that they’ll will be tied to it’s creation indefinitely.

Final word

To summarize, OpenAI is releasing custom GPTs, which means ChatGPT Plus or ChatGPT Enterprise subscribers have access to tools to create their own chatbots. Eventually, this will be accessible through the GPT Store which follows a similar path as the Google Play Store and the App Store.

Ultimately, OpenAI sees its GPT platform as a means of getting closer to the creation of an AI superintelligence, or an AGI. It’s no doubt a clever plan. However, Restricting custom OpenAI GPTs to paid subscribers will shoot up the company’s already accelerating revenue. Reportedly, OpenAI is seeking a new valuation of up to $90 billion.